I do ALL of my planning digitally but I understand that not everyone is comfortable with that process. For my clients who are creative/artistic/visual, a Bullet Journal offers an elegant alternative to the traditional calendar or list.

Bullet Journaling is getting popular, which means that some people are accessing a useful way to "record the past, organize the present and plan for the future." However, others are feeling incentivized - or even pressured - to employ yet another planning "solution" that a) they don't need and/or b) doesn't work for their personalities or lifestyles.

Image courtesy of bulletjournal.com

Watch the video about the principles of the Bullet Journal system, and then consider these pros and cons to determine if it might be a good fit for you.

If you know me at all, you know I rarely advocate for products. But there are seven items that perfectly fit our purposes in our new NYC apartment so I thought I'd share them with you.

Considerate this less an endorsement of these particular products and more a fine example of when good planning meets with careful shopping.

Laundry Cart - This narrow, rolling, 3-tiered cart is just the right fit in my laundry closet. It holds cleaning supplies, batteries, lightbulbs and more. It could also be used in kitchens and bathrooms. There are several similar versions available for about $30 online.

Floating drawer - These matching floating drawers for our bedroom hold a lamp and store the basics, without cluttering the floor visually or physically. I love being able to mop right under the bed without hindrance. Several retailers carry similar products but I found my perfect size and design at Urbansize on Etsy.

The IKEA Raskog Utility Cart is quite popular on the Internet. Now I know why. It's versatile (we use ours to store pet food and cookbooks), attractive (it comes in grey, white and turquoise) and sturdy.

Casper Mattress - I'm so glad my brother told me about Casper. Rather than lugging our old mattress set from Georgia, we bought a new king-sized Casper mattress for only $950. It was delivered to the apartment for free. It came in a small box and easily unwrapped into the most comfortable bed we've ever enjoyed. No need for a box spring. It lays on any flat surface.

Magnetic knife strip - We didn't want to sacrifice drawer space for knives or counter space for a knife block. This magnetic solution is sleek and so easy. And since we're renters, we used velcro Command strips to hang it.

Turkish towels - When you think Turkish towels, usually you think "ultra plush." We traded in our luxurious bath sheets, though, for black-and-white striped Peshtemal towels. They are large and versatile - you can use them as throws or wraps - and they absorb water and dry much more quickly than regular towels. They also wrap around my hair nicely and take up a lot less space.

Roomba - When you have two cats and a dog, and OCD-style cleanliness needs, a Roomba is an ultimate luxury. It's not hard to vacuum a one-bedroom apartment but it's incredible to come home each day to a fresh, clean floor. We set ours to clean once a day. You can set yours to do it more or less frequently. It stores handily underneath our bed.

Living in New York can take many shapes. For us, returning to city life meant having less stuff and more experiences.

Although we dearly loved our historic home in Georgia and enjoyed hosting our friends and family there for visits, our New York apartment perfectly suits or New York lifestyle. Like our routines, the new space is sleek and bright, beautiful but practical.

We spend most of our time outside of our home in the city. We walk everywhere and take in the many sights and activities on offer. We watch less TV. We spend less time cleaning and caring for our home, and more time exploring with friends. I don't miss our charming southern home. I am too busy enjoying the Big Apple to miss our big house.

That said, our apartment is a welcoming respite at the end of a long day among the crowds.

Most military families take advantage of the moving services provided. In this, our second and final military move, we opted again to move ourselves. When you are doing the packing, loading, unloading and unpacking yourself, you're very motivated to minimize the volume of stuff you bring. Forced to examine every object in our Georgia home during the packing process, we turned up in New York with just what we needed - and what our new, smaller space could comfortably accommodate.

You also have a lot more control than you do when you hire movers. We chose our move dates, for instance, and unloaded the truck in an order that made unpacking easy - breaking down and exiting boxes as we went to make space to maneuver in the apartment. You can do that when you're not paying an hourly fee.

One of the things we did that made for a smooth move was to order new furniture instead of bringing our old things with us. Obviously, this doesn't always make sense financially. When we left our DC apartment for our house in Georgia, we took every stick of furniture we owned. In downsizing, however, we found that the proceeds from our estate sale exceeded the cost of ordering a few essential pieces (a new mattress set and 3 chests of drawers). Our coffee table and 3 occasional chairs accompanied us on our journey - but they took up very little space on the truck. We saved a lot of money not having to transport major pieces up the coast, and we were thrilled to have our new pieces delivered to the apartment rather than having to move them ourselves.

We were sad to trade in our antique wooden dressers for pre-fab Ikea ones, but the new look works well in our contemporary-sty;e apartment. We didn't have to worry about damaging our furniture and there's actually a lot more room in these drawers than in our old ones.

Planning is essential to a smooth move. As soon as our apartment-hunting trip was complete, and we'd signed a lease on our new place in New York, I sat down to plan out exactly what would come with us to New York and where it would "live."

Walking through our home in Georgia to be sure I didn't leave anything out, I made a list of all the categories of stuff we would need. These included clothing, accessories and shoes, toiletries, linens, cookware, serveware and pantry items, and pet supplies. Also included were cookbooks, paper files, memorabilia, office supplies, electronics and cleaning supplies.

With that comprehensive list, I mapped out our apartment on paper and assigned "homes" for each category. Only then could I estimate how much space we'd need for each category - and order furniture and organizing products appropriate for each area.

As you might guess, this process took several hours. But it paid off. Within 24 hours of unloading our truck, our new home was unpacked and organized.

Downsizing requires some tough decision-making. Here are some of the choices we made to ensure we'd be comfortable in our small space:

Enjoy the china - I sold our set of everyday, white plates and bowls, and instead packed only my grandmother's china for use in our new place. Having two sets of dishes didn't make sense with our limited kitchen storage - especially since entertaining is not our top priority in New York - and I decided I'd rather risk damaging the china in the process of enjoying it, than pack it away where it would be "safe" but out of sight.

Reduce, reduce, reduce - I also halved our numbers of serving pieces and linens. Although we welcome overnight guests on our extra-large sofa, we only needed dishes and glasses for 6, and a single extra set of bed and bath linens. (That's what laundry and dishwashing are for). We also thinned out our wardrobes significantly. A versatile wardrobe that suits our lifestyle is easy to store, and means laundry never gets too piled up.

Prioritize - You may have noticed several categories "missing" from my list of items. We choose spaciousness and ease of access over owning holiday decorations, sports equipment (except our yoga mats), tools (except a hammer), and gifts and gift-wrapping, to name a few. Rather than supplementing our large kitchen island with a dining table, we chose to use the extra space in the living area to house our files and electronics. Once again, the primary function of our apartment is to support our daily routines - not to host dinner parties.

Your choices may look very different from mine, but the bottom line is that prioritizing high-frequency-use items makes for a beautiful, practical small home.

When my husband's job took us from our hometown of DC, where we shared a charming one-bedroom apartment, to Augusta, we chose the smallest home we could find: a beautiful, historic four-bedroom "cottage." There was a lot of furniture to buy to properly outfit the house but the enjoyment we derived from it in the four years we've spent here were well worth it.

But tomorrow we throw our pets in the car and move to Manhattan, where we'll be back in a one-bedroom apartment - one quite a bit smaller than our first place in DC. We are thrilled to be returning to city life and, as luxurious as our home has felt, we're also eager to live simply with only the essentials. It'll be less to move, to manage, to maintain, to clean. And we'll spend more of our lives out in the streets than curled up at home.

In preparation for smaller living, we gathered the 3 pieces of furniture we decided to bring to New York, our minimalist wardrobes and kitchen supplies, our crucial paper files and a couple other odds and ends into our upstairs sunroom. Everything else was left out to be sold in an estate sale.

Estate sale: the bottom line

Hire an expert. Kara Chavous of Antique Unique Estate Sales knew how to price and market our sale. She would have laid out everything for display but, as the Type A control freak I am, I did most of that before she arrived.

Sell EVERYTHING. We were told not to throw anything away, that people will buy anything and everything. We were skeptical, but listened and it paid off. People walked away with things we'd have surely trashed. Half a can of bug spray? Someone wants that.

Get out. On the day of the sale, we did our best to stay away from the house. This is more comfortable for buyers and less stressful for sellers. Unlike most, we weren't emotional about parting with our stuff or sensitive to comments about it, but we sure didn't need to witness firsthand the stream of strangers parading through our home.

Build a barricade. We were warned that estate sale buyers show up early and often, and try their hardest to access the off-limits areas of the home. I was still surprised, though, to walk downstairs at 7am in my pajamas and find two men on our front porch rocking chairs. And shocked when, twice, buyers tested the door handle on our bedroom door, which sported a giant "X" in duct tape and sign that said, "Do NOT enter. NOT for sale." Luckily, the handle locked from the inside. It would've been awkward to be barged in upon in my bed watching Hulu. The next day, I added to the sign, "Seriously."

Cash in and move on. Today we will receive a check that does not match the total amount we spent acquiring our belongings but it's 100% more than if we kept this stuff. Instead of dragging our past along with us or spending thousands on storage, we will purchase a new bed and sofa in New York, and keep chugging. With money in the bank and a very small UHaul, we're ready to start living large (small!) in the next phase of our lives.

As a newly published author, I am thrilled to know that people are enjoying my book, "Breaking Up With Your Stuff." But as a minimalist, I loathe the idea that, once it's read, the book will sit on shelves collecting dust in my readers' homes.

So, what should you do with books, after you've read them, to ensure they live many more lives?

I've said before that the best gifts are gifts of experiences. So rather than adding another toy to the pile this year, give the children in your life special treats of time and attention, like family movies packs, passes to your local children's museum, or one-on-one day with grandma at the park or zoo.

But everybody likes to unwrap a present from time to time - and a minimal amount of toys is a healthy part of any child's life. So...what are the best toys for little ones? Items that inspire imagination and creativity.

Look for gifts that:

can become many things in the child's play.

encourage independent thought.

store and travel easily.

In a world of carrots, 3-year-old Zack Zahn is thrilled to receive his very own box of hot chocolate.

Stay away from:

branded toys.

electronic toys.

toys that have many pieces.

very large, space-consuming toys.

For example, instead of a Disney costume, choose a simple accessory like a wand. Elaborate toys do all of the "work" for kids. It's healthier and more fun for kids to use their imagination. Your nephews don't need a play castle when they can build a fort out of the sofa cushions.

Food gifts are fun, too - if it's a package of special treats for Mom and Dad to dole out appropriately over time - and if you choose well, it won't hang around the house forever collecting dust!

Store dishes and glasses near the sinks and dishwasher. Store cooking oils and spices near the stove. A coffee and tea station is great if you’re a daily consumer of hot beverages.

Maintain!
Treat your new kitchen like a beautiful but fragile newborn baby - perfect but unable yet to support itself.
- Put things away as soon as you're finished using them.
- Take the extra 3 seconds to put them away properly, with care.
- Keep non-kitchen items out of the kitchen.
- Use your inventory to make a grocery list each time you shop.
- Use the buddy system to stick to your list.
- Put away groceries promptly and thoughtfully.
- Support family members in your combined efforts to make a change.

If you're not familiar with Charles Duhigg's bestelling book, "The Power of Habit," let me be the first to recommend it. The below flowchart, which outlines precisely how to form a new habit, is a testament to the author's expertise.

The premise of the book is this: that positive habits are key to success and that habits aren't formed or changed by reliance on willpower, but rather by gradual, intentional neurological conditioning. In other words, positive habit-formation is difficult but crucial - and possible for anyone.

As an organizing coach, I work to instill new habits in clients' lives. Small, repeated gestures like making your bed, sorting your mail and putting things away as soon as you're finished using them, are difficult at first but eventually become automatic, like brushing your teeth in the morning. And they are critical to getting and staying organized!

What single new habit can you start forming today that would put you one step closer to organized living? Hanging up your coat at the end of the day? Paying your bills at the same time every month? Laying out your clothes each night before bed? Choose one and follow Duhigg's path to success.

If there's an unwanted presence in your home - a bin of clothing from "bigger" days, perhaps, or a stack of books from an unfinished degree - it's time to set it free.

The logic we use to justify hanging on to remnants from our past that spark regret, grief or shame, are not logical. They're superstitious and masochistic. Keeping your "fat" clothes doesn't ward off weight gain any more than tossing them tempts it. Keeping textbooks from an unfinished degree or an incomplete craft project doesn't inspire you to finish what you started. Instead, it sparks discouraging, negative emotions and invades the space that should be dedicated to what you're working on NOW. If and when you choose to return to your project, you will prefer to start out with fresh supplies.

So for now, stop punishing yourself. Accept that you've made decisions in the past to get you where you are today. Accept where you are today - and who you are today - and outfit your home with the things that set you up for success in your CURRENT endeavors.

Go one full day without spending any money. It’s certainly a challenge, especially when you realize you’re low on gasoline or groceries, but it’s an exercise in thoughtful planning. It also requires you to be creative and resourceful - maybe you can walk instead of drive, or perhaps you have more in your pantry than you think you do. It’s a great feeling if you can meet the challenge and worth doing once a month or so.

Put away the plastic

After major expenses such as food, rent, utilities and transportation, a lot of what we spend each month is on relatively small items. A latte here, a sundress there, and we’re wondering at the end of the month where the extra dollars went. Practice cutting back on the incidentals by locking up your credit card. Take out in cash the exact amount you have budgeted for extras in one week and use it, rather than plastic, for that week. You might think twice about those small purchases when you see the cash start to dwindle.

Eliminate temptation

When you’re trying to eat healthfully, you probably don’t hang around the ice cream parlor. So if you need to cut back on spending, stop exposing yourself to the temptations that lie in wait for you in catalogues and shopping malls. In general, I feel secure that I have most everything I need. A single encounter with a fashion spread or a storefront display, though, can suddenly introduce a flood of wants and desires.

Our world is chock full of advertising, some of it rather subversive. To overcome your vulnerability to the marketers, stop catalogue delivery, leave the room during television commercials, and take a break from social media, where we tend to compare ourselves with others. Avoid stores if possible and do your shopping with a list.

Take a beat

So you went in armed with your shopping list and the smallest possible shopping bag, but at some point you grabbed a shopping cart and started loading it with great stuff. Fabulous stuff. Stuff that is on sale! Before you hit the checkout counter, take a moment to think. Then walk away from the cart and out of the store.

Removed from the situation, you might feel more clear-headed and less caught up in the thrill of the hunt. If you’re still unsure, put your items on hold for a day or two. Often, things we think we really want become less attractive once the moment has passed.

Is it too late? Have you already made your purchase? Stash your items – with the receipt – for a few days. You might decide you’d rather have the money back than whatever’s in the bag. You might, possibly, have even forgotten what’s in the bag. If this is the case, don’t look now. Go straight to the return desk.

Un-sell yourself on the sale

Speaking of stuff that is on sale…if you don’t need it, it’s still too expensive. As my grandfather told my mother, who frequently came home with clothing that she bought on sale with his credit card, “You’re saving me so much, you’re breaking me!” Put blinders on to coupons, promotions and clearance stickers, and stick to your list.

Enjoy the show

At some point, you’ll have to re-enter the consumer world. Whether you’re on vacation or enjoying an outing with friends, beautiful things will tantalize you. Try thinking of the world as a living museum. Take in the paintings without taking them home. Smell the flowers without uprooting them. In other words, enjoy the beauty of nature and the creativity of mankind without succumbing to the desire to possess them. It’s impossible to own all the beauty in the world so experience it all but buy only a tiny fraction.

Five days after Christmas, does your living room still look like a disaster area? Is the playroom bursting at the seams, unable to absorb the holiday's new loot? This New Year's weekend is the perfect time to tackle toys with the kids.

Start 2015 by donating the old to make room for the new. Work with your kids to donate anything that they've outgrown. Help them sort the special or beloved toys from the rest. Provide guidance but respect their choices. They might even decide that some of the new gifts are good candidates for donation.

Kids of all ages will benefit:

Small children practice sorting items into categories.

Young children enjoy their first experience of charity.

Kids of all ages take responsibility for their space and belongings, and learn valuable organizing skills.

The tremendous quality-of-life benefits of organized living should be enough to convince you to make a change. But if that's not enough to get you de-cluttering, consider the several ways in which being organized saves you money!

Sell unused items. Furniture, clothing, jewelry, small appliances and electronics are just some of the extraneous items you can sell for cash online or in a yard sale. Take a hard look at what you really use in your home and sell what you can. Or save your energy and donate these items for a tax write-off.

Curb unnecessary spending. Once you've gone through the purging process, you'll have a much more accurate mental inventory of your belongings. You won't find yourself buying things you already have or buying things you haven't ended up using in the past.

Put cash, gift cards and coupons to use. I should take a commission on the loose cash and gift cards my clients find during the organizing process! Create a system for storing and tracking your bonuses and discounts so you're sure to derive their full value.

Get your finances in order. The first step toward financial security is financial organization. Take inventory of your finances, and create tracking and budgeting systems.

– How would my space and my life be different if I minimized? What would I lose ...and what would I gain?

– For individual items, be brutally honest with yourself about why you’re reluctant to let go. What are you afraid of? How can you talk yourself through those fears with logic?

Start small. Part with just one single object today. Enjoy the lightness of owning less and the satisfaction of donating useful items to those in need. You’ll see it’s not as hard as you think. Baby steps. It’ll get easier as you go.

Get help. You don’t have to do it alone. The right Organized Living Coach can shepherd you through the process of developing healthier, more rewarding attitudes toward objects.

Less clutter is the least of the benefits to keeping only a small portion of your kids' "creations." Consider these benefits to your child's creative and psychological growth.

1) Kids who get the message that everything they make is wonderful are less inspired to create new and different things. Stop saving every last scribble and encourage your child to keep experimenting.

2) Kids who learn to distinguish between passing fancies and truly special things are more likely to mature into financially responsible shoppers and less likely to need an Organized Living Coach like me to help them wade through their clutter. Engage your young children in a conversation about which of their objects is most special - and why.

3) We are a culture overly attached to documenting and commemorating our past - at the expense of making time and space for NOW. Be an example to your kids by making room for new creations.

I promised (warned?) you that there'd be more about kids and stuff before the holiday season was through…and here it is! In preparation for the holiday buy-a-thon, I'm arming you with everything I can find against buying or accepting too many things for your kids.

In My Kids Have Too Much Stuff, Sharon Holbrook writes for The Washington Post, "I might get a sticker at the doctor’s office, just like my children still do, but I didn’t get a strip of eight stickers from Trader Joe’s. One is more fun than eight. One gets stuck proudly on a shirt. A strip of eight winds up in a discarded heap on the floor of my car."

"One is more fun than eight." Yes! Less is truly more. So when it comes to holiday gifts, give one special item instead of ten. Ask family members to go in together on one or two gifts, rather than each person adding to your child's pile of loot.

This week, as always, I am thankful for my clients, who welcome me into their homes and lives, and make it possible for me to live my passion.

My wish for them and for all of my fellow Americans this week is twofold. May we find joy in our celebrations by honoring the inherent blessings in our lives. And may we carry that focus throughout the onslaught of Black Friday and the torrent of consumption that ensues.

The pressure to gather "stuff" reaches a fever pitch at this time of year. I admonish us all to resist the siren call. Give thanks to those you love by giving gifts of experiences this year. It's scientifically proven to make us happier (Buy Experiences, Not Things - James Hamblin, The Atlantic, Oct. 2014). In the coming weeks, I'll offer several experiential gift ideas, including non-toy gifts for kids. Now is a great time to start thinking about what experiences your loved ones will cherish.

Get started with your Thanksgiving festivities. The food and fine linens are props, there to heighten the experience - but togetherness is at the heart of the holiday. Be present in these moments and they'll last forever.